If you can sell it here, consider selling it there

We don’t just need to open our doors for exporting — we need more doors

Globalization and logistics infrastructure has put the world’s largest economies well within reach. (Contributed)

February, 2014 the Nova Scotia Commission on Building Our New Economy presented a collection of goals that, if achieved, would go very far to secure our economic future. The so-called Now or Never Report goals challenged the citizens, businesses and politicians of Nova Scotia to do more with what we have. To think bigger than we have become. To be more welcoming than ever before. And to use our strengths to our advantage by building on successes.

And perhaps if I were to paraphrase (as an entrepreneur that exports from Nova Scotia) — we cannot allow ourselves to be someone else’s best kept secret.

This issue of Business Voice presents the mechanics of getting in and out of Halifax. Planes, trains and automobiles (OK trucks) are a big part of the mechanics of getting in and out of Halifax, but these are not the limiting factors in our ability to export. It is the businesses that we operate.

To set a level, the Ivany Commission set an exports goal of $20 billion (up 50 per cent from 2012) and for those exports to be delivered by 1,380 business (up from the 930 that we had in 2012). To date, the Commission has been clear: we are not progressing on either of these goals.

(If you want to see where we are on the rest of the Commission’s goals, visit onens.ca)

The province, through programming delivered by NSBI, is doing its part. The Export Growth Program offers support to business looking to increase their export sales outside of Nova Scotia. But our future export success needs to be tied to private sector initiatives, not government programs. Their support is terrific — don’t get me wrong — but to be clear: business needs to own these goals.

So the challenge I put forward to business in Halifax today is this: if you can sell it here, will you consider selling it elsewhere?

For companies that manufacture and sell product, globalization and logistics infrastructure has put the world’s largest economies well within reach. And our products really do reach the global market at scale. In 2016, Nova Scotia exported more than $1.2 billion in crustaceans (lobsters, shrimp, etc.) and $1.1 billion in tires. But there is a whole lot more to our region than lobster and tires, and whether you are selling paper, aerospace components, petroleum products or baked goods, the world market wants our product. Halifax enterprise is open for business worldwide today, but we need more export businesses to be a part of

our export community. And yes —in case you were wondering — Nova Scotia exported more than $32 million in baked goods in 2016.

But there is more to exports than product. Although in 2015 we exported $8.6 billion in product, we also exported $5.2 billion in services, and this could be the area where growth may come more swiftly. With our large concentration of post-secondary institutions, we have the capacity to retool our talent creation engines to match global demand with nimbleness that traditional manufacturing cannot match. If offshore wind turbine maintenance engineers are what is required globally, something tells me that curriculum development for such skills can be achieved with an efficiency and cost base that would rival traditional manufacturing.

Aerospace maintenance, education, information technology, professional services — these are all services that Chamber members export worldwide. We have the talent supply chain, and we have the imagination. We can do more to step up in this area, and we can do more to achieve the Ivany Commission goals.

So if you sell it here — whether it is product or services — consider making changes to your business to sell your offering outside of Nova Scotia. We have been exporters for hundreds of years. Let’s do more. It is now or never.

Mark Fraser is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce and Executive Vice President at T4G Limited. Follow Mark on Twitter at @mark_fraser